The United States is in dire
straits. Its government is in the hands of people who
connect to events neither rationally nor morally.

If President Bush's
neoconservative administration were rational, the US
would never have invaded Iraq. If Bush's government were
moral, it would be ashamed of the carnage and horror it
has unleashed in Iraq.

The Bush administration has no
doubts. It knows that it is right and virtuous. Bush and
the neocons dismiss factual criticisms as evidence that
the critics are "against us."

People who know that they are right
cannot avoid sinking deeper into mistakes. The Bush
administration led the US into a war on the basis of
claims that are now known to be untrue. Yet, President
Bush and Vice President Cheney consistently refuse to
admit that any mistake has been made. The chances are
high, therefore, that the second Bush administration
will be more disastrous than the first.

The first Bush administration has
cost America 10,000 casualties (dead and wounded). Eight
of ten US divisions are tied down in Iraq by a few
thousand lightly armed insurgents. Polls reveal that
most Iraqis regard Americans as invaders and occupiers,
not as liberators. US prestige in the Muslim world has
evaporated. The majority of Muslims, who were with us
are now against us. Sooner or later, this change of mind
will endanger our puppet regimes in Egypt, Jordan,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In a futile effort to assert
hegemony in Iraq, the US has largely destroyed Fallujah,
once a city of 300,000. Hundreds, if not thousands, of
civilians have been killed by the indiscriminate use of
high explosives.

To cover up the extensive civilian
deaths, US authorities count all Iraqi dead as
insurgents, delivering a high body count as claim of
success for a bloody-minded operation. The human cost
for American families is 51 dead and 320 wounded US
troops—casualties on par with the worst days of the
Vietnam War.

The film of a US Marine shooting a
captured, wounded and unarmed Iraqi prisoner in the head
at close range has been shown all over the world. Coming
on top of proven acts of torture at US military prisons,
this war crime has destroyed what remained of America's
image and moral authority.

On November 17, the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights called for investigation
of American war crimes in Fallujah. This is a remarkable
turn of events, showing how far US prestige, and the
morale of our armed forces, have fallen.

However, for Bush administration
partisans, war crimes are no longer something of which
to be ashamed. Reflecting the neoconservative mindset
that America's monopoly on virtue justifies any and all
US actions, Fox "News" talking heads and their
Republican Party and retired military guests have
arrogantly defended the marine who murdered the wounded
Iraqi prisoner.

Iraqi insurgents are condemned for
deaths that they inflict on civilians. But when American
troops fire indiscriminately upon civilians and US
missile and bombing attacks kill Iraqis in their homes,
the deaths are dismissed as "collateral damage."
This double standard is a further indication that
Americans have come to the belief that US ends justify
any means.

A number of former top US military
leaders and heads of the CIA and National Security
Agency have condemned Bush's invasion of Iraq as a
"strategic blunder." These are people who gave their
lives to the service of our country and can in no way be
said to be "against us."

However, the Bush administration
and its apologists regard critics as enemies. To accept
criticism means to be held accountable, something the
Bush administration is determined to avoid. Condoleezza
Rice, who failed as National Security Adviser to prevent
the Pentagon from using fabricated information to start
a Middle East war, is being elevated to Secretary of
State in Bush's second term.

Indeed, the entire panoply of
neoconservatives, who intentionally fabricated the
"intelligence" used to justify the US invasion of
Iraq, are being rewarded by promotion to higher offices.

Stephen Hadley is moving up to
National Security Adviser. Hadley is the person who
advocates "usable" mini-nukes for the US conquest
of the Middle East.

John Bolton is to be Deputy
Secretary of State. Bolton is the person who wants the
US to invade Iran.

The few officials who are not
warmongers, such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, are leaving
the Bush administration.

Right before our eyes, the CIA is
being turned into a neoconservative propaganda organ as
numerous senior officials resign and are replaced with
yes-men.

With its current troop strength,
the Bush administration cannot achieve the Middle East
goals it shares with the Israeli government. Either the
draft will have to be restored or mini-nukes developed
and deployed. As insurgents do not mass in military
formations, the mini-nukes would be used as a genocidal
weapon to wipe out entire cities that show any
resistance to neocon dictates.

Many Bush partisans send me e-mails
fiercely advocating "virtuous violence." They do
not flinch at the use of nuclear weapons against Muslims
who refuse to do as we tell them. These partisans do not
doubt for a second that Bush has the right to dictate to
Muslims and everyone else (especially the French). Many
also express their conviction that all of Bush's critics
should be rounded up and sent to the Middle East in time
for the first nuke.

These attitudes represent a sharp
break from American values and foreign policy. The new
conservatives have more in common with the Brownshirt
movement that silenced German opposition to Hitler than
with America's Founding Fathers.

Bush's reelection, if won fair and
square, was won because 20 million Christian
evangelicals
voted against abortion and homosexuals. However,
Bush's neoconservative masters will use his reelection
as a mandate for further violence in the Middle East.
They intend to set the US on a course of long and
debilitating war.

There is no one left in the Bush
administration, the CIA, or the military to stop them.